慰安婦像にひざまずく「安倍首相」像　韓国の植物園が制作

　【ソウル時事】韓国紙・京郷新聞によると、江原道・平昌の私立「韓国自生植物園」は、慰安婦を象徴する少女像の前でひざまずいて謝罪する安倍晋三首相とみられる像を制作した。韓国のインターネット上では「日本大使館前にも設置しよう」「（日本の韓国に対する）反感をあおる。もう少し賢くできないのか」と賛否が割れている。
　この２体の像は「永遠の贖罪（しょくざい）」と名付けられている。私財を投じた園長は、同紙に対し「（像は）安倍首相を象徴したものだ」と説明。制作者はソウルの日本大使館前の少女像とは別の彫刻家で、「日本が歴史を正面から受け止めて謝罪し、生まれ変わることを祈願した」と意図を語った。
　元徴用工問題などで日韓関係がこじれる中、公開されれば両国間の新たな火種となりそうだ。（2020/07/27-22:21）

A botanical garden in South Korea has established a statue of a kneeling man who resembles Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in front of a statue of a girl symbolizing so-called comfort women, according to the South Korean daily Kyunghyang Shinmun.
   The move by Korea Botanic Garden in Pyeongchang in the northeastern province of Gangwon-do drew mixed reactions on South Korean social media. Some people called for erecting a similar statue of a man in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, before which a comfort woman statue has already been set up, while others said that the statues at the botanic garden would antagonize Japan and that the garden's operator could have made a wiser choice.
   The new statues were established with personal money of the head of the privately run garden.
   The garden chief told the South Korean daily that the man's statue depicts Abe and that the two statues were created by a sculptor different from the one who sculpted the comfort woman statue in front to the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
   The statues at the garden were created in hope of encouraging Japan to face history, give apologies and be reborn, the garden head said.